NEWS: Isle Of Tyne @ The Tyne Bar

The inaugural Isle of Tyne alldayer pulls together a remarkable line-up of live music

By Lee Fisher
on Monday, August 19th, 2019

Image: Warm Digits

The Tyne Bar and Wandering Oak: two Newcastle institutions who bring joy to thousands on a regular basis. But friends, they’ve excelled themselves this time. On Saturday 24th August these two venerable bodies are putting on the inaugural Isle Of Tyne festival and they’ve hit the ground running, for on the inevitably balmy mid-summer evening from 6pm, they’ve pulled together a remarkable bill to appear under the Tyne Bar arch, AND it’s free!

The Trans-Pennine, motorik disco ball that is Warm Digits haven’t played locally that often of late, so they’re taking time off from recording commitments to head up the bill. Then there’s Paddy Steer, who pretty much defies description but that would be neglecting journalistic duties, so let’s say he’s a ‘Harry Partch-meets-Heath Robinson arrangement of synths, machines and analogue instruments, playing wonky and surreal acid-jazz-tropicalia-funk to blow your mind and move your feet.’ Because that’s what I said last time he played the North East.

Local heroes Grey Tapes are the multi-producer/musician studio collective who somehow make it all work wonderfully live, while GGAllan Partridge are the best band to emerge from the North East for a while, never failing to deliver anger, anxiety, humour and deeply infectious post-punk pop tunes. Finally, there’s The B-Hives: the world may not have realised it needed a female-fronted Hives tribute band but it’s got one! All this plus street food, DJs (including the magnificent Walkinshaws On Wax in the Tyne Bar itself) and all sorts of other shenanigans.